5 Monopolies Shervin Pishevar Says are More Dangerous Than Ma Bell

Shervin Pishevar went on Twitter recently to share a number of thoughts. Some people saw this as helpful advice from a successful venture capitalist while others saw it as a warning of what’s to come. Either way, his view on monopolies are concerning.

The Monopolies

The monopolies that Shervin Pishevar discusses within his tweets that were bundled together in a span of 21 hours are five in number. These include Alphabet (the company that owns Google), Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft.

Each of the companies controls a different part of the tech world, ranging from what we buy to how we buy it to how we share it on social media.

All of these monopolies are concerning because of what they’re doing. They’re powerful and they seem to acquire a lot of the startups that initially come out to try and compete, which only gives them more power because of the new innovations that they acquire.

Why They’re More Powerful Than Ma Bell

Let’s first take a look at Ma Bell. It was the phone company for most of the country for a significant amount of time. They held a monopoly so strongly that other phone companies simply couldn’t enter the market.

Shervin Pishevar says that’s happening again, only worse. Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and the others are extremely powerful. They are known by their name and it’s hard to go up against that.

Shervin Pishevar also identifies that they have access to a significant amount of important data that even sovereigns don’t have. They know names, dates, and other data that allows them to hold the power, which they yield overtly and covertly.

It’s obvious that the monopolies need to be taken down, yet Shervin Pishevar does not have the solution…at least not yet.